Printers are ubiquitously used in a wide variety of applications and environments. The wear and tear upon the components of each printer depends on various factors such as the quality of the components, the amount of printing jobs that are executed on the printer, and the nature of the environment in which the printer is used. As for the nature of the environment in which a printer is used, some printers are used in an office environment where printer usage can be high but the environment in which the printers are located is relatively hospitable in terms of temperature and humidity. Some other printers may be used in an industrial environment where printer usage may be relatively low but the environment in which the printers are located may be harsh (for example, a factory floor that is dusty, hot, and/or humid). Consequently, the amount of wear and tear and the nature of the wear and tear, encountered by components of printers, even when the printers are identical to each other, can vary widely depending upon how and where they are used.
Typically, the condition of a printer is ignored by most users until the printer malfunctions (paper jam, defective printout quality, unusual noise, etc.). Remedial action to address printer issues is thus mostly reactive in nature rather than proactive and is often executed manually by a user of the printer or by designated maintenance personnel. Furthermore, in some cases, the remedial action may be delayed due to lack of availability of a spare part as a result of poor planning, thereby forcing the printer to be placed out of service for an unnecessarily long period of time.
In many cases, even when preventive maintenance is carried out by designated maintenance personnel, various actions that are taken by such personnel are often based on experience and guesswork rather than on quantifiable parameters. For example, maintenance personnel of a large corporation may routinely replace certain components of a set of printers (a thermal printhead or a platen roller, for example) on a routine, periodic basis without taking into consideration the operating conditions of individual printers and/or other data that may be pertinent to individual printers in the set of printers. As can be understood, such an action is neither efficient in terms of personnel usage nor in terms of incurred expenses.